Road to Recovery
by Bighoggi14
Summary: Ulrich get's badly injured while saving Yumi. He's can't do much, not like he used to. Unfortunately, Xana has taken a new interest in him. Suffice it to say, Ulrich's going to have some major problems on his hands.
1. Chapter 1

**I think this story is appropriately titled, because I meant to make a Christmas Story and forgot. Sorry.**

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I missed it on Christmas**

By: Bighoggi14**  
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(Ulrich P.O.V.)

I woke up this morning feeling sick. Not physically, but mentally. Last night we had the most awesome Christmas party. There was a dance at school, casual. You weren't supposed to bring a date. It was a lot of fun, but it ended at nine so everyone who needed to could go home. Instead, we all went to Odd's and My room, and partied until about 1:30 AM. It was awesome. Yumi didn't have to go home because her parents went out of town to visit relatives. We exchanged gifts, I got lots of great stuff. I gave Yumi a picture I had drawn, it took me a long time. It was a picture of us hanging out and smiling. I think she loved it, it was a pretty good picture. Well, at least for me. At 1:30, Yumi had to go home. I offered to walk her home, but she refused. As soon as she left I felt bad. She hadn't given me a present…. So the next morning I woke up early because I felt sick. My beloved Yumi hadn't deemed me worthy to receive a present. I took a long shower, not caring if someone else didn't get hot water. I got out, got dressed and woke up Odd. He walked half-asleep to the showers. I can't stand being in this room right now… it's making me feel depressed. So I head to my usual spot, my favorite tree in the park. Being here doesn't make me feel any better, but it's relaxing, it gives me a place to collect my thoughts. I climb up to the tallest branch and sit on it. My phone vibrates, I got a text message from Odd.

Where are you? You're missing breakfast

-O

I quickly text him back: 

Don't want to talk now.

And I shut off my phone so I don't any more interruptions. After about half and hour, I feel a little better, so I decide to go and get breakfast. I hop down to the lowest branch, but stop quickly when I see Yumi walking down the path. I quickly climb over to another tree, right next to mine. I was just in time, Yumi looked up into my tree right where I was.

"Ulrich? Are you up there? I need to talk to you." Even though I don't respond, Yumi just stands there. After a moment of consideration, she climbs up into the tree. I silently jump down and walk towards the path. I hear a loud crack, and whip around to see a branch give way underneath her. She manages to grab a branch and hang there.

"Yumi!" I yell and start climbing. She looks down surprised. I hear another crack, the branch she was hanging on gave way. She starts falling, and I don't have any time to react. I jump out and catch her, trying to get clear of the tree. Unfortunately, I don't make it and crash through three branches before getting clear. I can't land on my feet, so I desperately turn myself around so I'm underneath her. I fall the rest of the ten feet and hit the ground hard, while Yumi lands on top of me. I skid about three feet and then stop. Pain lances up my back, I know I'm hurt really bad. The last thing I remember before I pass out is Yumi stirring and looking at me with those beautiful eyes, the ones that hold my gaze no matter how hard I try to break it.

I wake up in the infirmary. I'm lying on my stomach without a shirt on and it's really uncomfortable. I try to move onto my back and realize why I'm on my stomach in the first place; pain sears through my back, leaving me winded. I realize I must be really beat up. Luckily it was only my back. I look around and see Yumi asleep in a chair. I try to get a better view and hurt myself again. I swear quietly but Yumi wakes up.

"Ulrich! How are you doing?"

"I don't know, I can't see."

"Why did you do that for me?" She asks quietly. She leans over and I see a small bandage on her head, the only wound I can see.

"Because… I didn't want you to get hurt." I say and look away. Yumi stays silent, and a small tear runs down my cheek, I don't know why…

"Thank you." She says quietly.

"Can you help me to sit up? I'm getting really uncomfortable." I say pleadingly. I really am, my chest is killing me.

"Oh sure!" She holds me gently and slowly moves me into a sitting position. Surprisingly, this wasn't very painful.

"Thank you. Do you know where my shirt is?" I ask, looking around better. I'm definitely in the infirmary, from the amount of light outside, I'd say its about midnight.

"Your shirt is in the garbage, it was ripped to shreds. Would you like me to go and get you another one?"

"That depends. What time is it?"

"It's about 10:30 PM."

_I've been out all day!_

"Shouldn't you be at home?"

"My parents stayed out of town, they won't be home for a couple of days. I don't have a curfew."

"Okay. Anyway, Odd would probably be asleep by now, so yah you can go if you want to. Here, let me give you a key…" I reach down carefully to realize that I'm not wearing my pants, I'm sitting on a bed in just my boxers. And even more embarrassing is the fact that Yumi is in the room.

"Where are my pants?" I say blushing. I pull the covers on the bed up.

"Over on the chair. Dorothy had to take them off to see if you had any injuries on your legs."

"My room key is in the right pocket." She walks over and fishes through my pocket, producing my key and pocketing it.

"Okay, I'll be back in a couple of minutes…." She leaves. I can tell I'm still blushing, my face is hot. It hurts to breathe, and I know that's a bad sign. After Yumi leaves, Dorothy comes in to check up on me.

"Oh, you're awake! How do you feel?" She says walking over to me.

"Like I just fell ten feet out of a tree and had a girl land on me."

"Ouch, that bad? Why are you sitting up? You should be laying down!"

"It hurts to lay down on my chest, and I obviously can't lay down on my back." I say.

"Your chest hurts? Maybe that bruise is worse than I thought…." I look down at my chest and see a large purple bruise right where my chest hurts. Dorothy touches it gently, I yell out in pain.

"Yup, it looks like you've got a cracked rib or two. I'm going to warn you, this is going to hurt badly."

"I can take it." Dorothy wraps a large bandage over the bruise. I nearly yell again, it feels like my lungs are on fire.

"Dorothy, how did I get here?"

"Yumi carried you. I'm surprised she managed to. She has a mild concussion, she was half delirious when she showed up. When she showed up at the gates by the park with you unconscious and her head bleeding, she gave Jim quite a scare."

_Yumi carried me all the way from the park to here?_

"So she only has a concussion?" I ask as Dorothy takes my temperature and other nurse-like things.

"Yes, she was actually quite lucky. What actually happened to you? Yumi refused to give a full account."

"We were, uh, climbing trees. The branch Yumi was standing on broke and she fell. She hit me and took me down with her, I landed first. She landed on top of me and I blacked out. That's all I can remember…."

"Oh really? Yumi said you saved her. That's actually all she would say. 'Ulrich saved me.' Even the principal couldn't get her to say any more."

_Why wouldn't she tell the principal?_

Dorothy tells me to stand up and see how stable I am on my feet. I need a little help getting up, but once I am, I can pretty much stay standing. I slowly put my pants back on and sit down on the bed.

"How bad is my back?"

"Let's just say it looks like you got in a fight with a lawnmower and lost."

"That bad huh?"

"Yah. I already put in about 50 stitches while you were sleeping. You're definitely going to be in pain for the next couple of weeks. You can go back to your dorm tomorrow, it's a good thing we're on winter break. Here, take these, they should help with the pain." She gives me a couple of pills and a glass of water. As I take the pills, the door opens and Yumi comes in holding a new shirt. Dorothy obviously decides to leave us alone and exits.

"Thanks Yumi." I say and accept the proffered shirt. I slip it carefully over my head and down my back. I set the glass on the bedside table.

"It's a good thing I'm so soft, right Yumi? Otherwise you'd probably be hurt just as bad as I am." I laugh a little, but it hurts so I stop suddenly.

"What's wrong?"

"Dorothy says I have a broken rib or two. Nothing to worry about."

"Yes it is, because I was the one who probably gave them to you."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. I landed on top of you. If I hadn't, you would be a lot better off."

"Don't blame yourself. It was my fault; I twisted around to protect you. Besides, this whole thing is my fault in the first place."

"Can you tell me why you were in the tree in the first place?"

"Technically, I wasn't-."

"Don't be technical. Just tell me why you skipped breakfast and went off to your favorite tree."

"Well, its, its because of…" I stutter because I can't bring myself to admit it was her fault in the first place.

"You can tell me." She says looking directly at me. I avert my gaze.

"It was because of you." I say and stare at my shoes.

"…Me?" I realize how immature it sounds, that I went off to the woods sulking because Yumi didn't get me a Christmas gift.

"You… you didn't get me a Christmas present…. I feel really stupid now." Yumi doesn't say anything, and I look up at her. She just stares at me with an empty expression on her face.

"I'm sorry. I'm so immature, I went sulking because I didn't get one present."

"You are not immature." She says quietly but firmly.

"Can I ask why?"

"Well, uh…."

"You can tell me. I can take it."

"It was Christmas Eve and I couldn't find anything I wanted to give you. So I went to Jeremie asking for help. He gave me the normal stuff, you know, fatherly advice. He basically told me it was up to me. So I decided to go unorthodox and ask Odd."

"You asked Odd?"

"Yah, he's your best friend. Best friends know what you want, whether you want them too or not."

"Yah I know. But still, Odd?"

"Odd told me what you really wanted for Christmas. But yesterday, I was too nervous to give it to you. So I left…."

"What was it?" I ask, trying not to sound hopeful.

"This." She leans close and kisses me. I quickly regain control over my brain and kiss her back. We kiss for a couple minutes, breaking apart for desperately needed air.

"Wow." Is all I can say.

"Wow what?"

"Wow, that was one hell of a Christmas present."

"I'm glad you liked it. I'm sorry I missed it on Christmas."

"Don't worry, I always loved belated gifts. It makes the celebration longer."

"Ulrich, there's something I always wanted to tell you…." I put my finger to her lips.

"I love you too."

"You do?"

"With all my heart." And we kiss again. After a minute or so, I have to stop. My whole upper body feels like it's on fire. Seeing my discomfort, Yumi lays me back down on the bad.

"You need to get some rest. I will still be here in the morning."

"Okay, but only because it's you telling me to…." I lay down and close my eyes. I can still see Yumi's face…. Unfortunately for me, sleep envelops me soon.

I wake up in the middle of the night because my chest is hurting me. My back is numb because of the painkillers. I look over and see Yumi sleeping in a chair next to my bed. It looks really uncomfortable. I grab my pillow and gently place it behind her, carefully so she won't wake up. I lay back down and fall asleep again.

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**Please tell me if you want this story to continue. I have a possible idea for a chappy, but this story would only be maybe 3 chappys long. If you have any ideas, please tell me. R&R people, authors love it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry this chappy took so long, I was debating whether to go on or not... then I had to come up with a plot line. Anyway, hope you enjoy.**

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(Yumi P.O.V.) 

I wake up in the morning feeling a lot more comfortable than I did when I fell asleep.

_That's weird…_

I stand up and stretch. I look back at my chair and notice that I was lying on a pillow, but I hadn't put it there. I look back at Ulrich and see that he is laying down with his head on the mattress because his pillow is gone.

_He gave his only pillow? He's so kind…_

I look at the time, it's nearly nine o'clock. Nurse Dorothy comes in, and I put my finger to my lips, telling her to be quiet. I point at Ulrich and she nods. In whispers she hands me a bottle of pills and tells me to give it to Ulrich when he wakes up. I take the bottle and set it on a nearby counter. I sit back down in the chair and try to find something to occupy my time. After about five minutes, I open my backpack and grab a piece of paper. I start drawing a picture of Ulrich. I must have been sitting there drawing for at least half and hour, but I lost track of time. I finish and set the paper down. (A/N: I know Yumi is a good artist because in Frontier she draws a picture of Jeremie.)

"Wow Yumi, that's really good." I look up and see Ulrich sitting up and looking at me.

"Ulrich you're awake! What are you doing up, you should be laying down!" I stand up.

"How did you sleep?" He asks me. I blush.

"Better, but you should have kept your pillow. You need it more than I do."

"You looked really uncomfortable. I was numb because of the painkillers, so it didn't matter anyway." I realize I forgot about the pills Dorothy gave me.

"Here, take these." I hand him the pills and a glass of water. He takes them while I get a call on my cell phone.

"Hello?"

"Yumi, it's Jeremie. XANA has just launched another attack, I need you to grab Ulrich and get here as fast as you can. Odd hasn't seen him for a while, he thinks he's in the forest sulking."

"I'll be there, but Ulrich can't come. I'll explain later. Be there in a few." I hang up. "Ulrich, XANA has launched an attack. I'm going to go, but I'll be back as soon as possible okay?"

"No, I'm coming with you." He says and starts to sit up.

"Oh no you're not. You can barely sit up, you are not coming. I'll have Jeremie keep you posted. Do not get out of this bed do you hear me?" I say sternly.

"Okay fine. You win. But if you get in serious trouble, I'll be there in a heartbeat."

"I'll be waiting for you…" I run out the door and head for the factory. As soon as I get there, Jeremie scans me in. I land in the ice region and start running. I see Odd there as well as Aelita, they're fighting a swarm of hornets. Odd just took out the leader, I pull out my fans and unleash them. They take out two more hornets, leaving one left which Odd takes out easily.

"Nice job guys. Now for the tower… hey wait. The tower just deactivated itself. That's weird…." Jeremie says.

"Okay, what now?"

"I guess I just devirtualize you." He's quiet for a second, then we hear 'devirtualization!' and everything goes white. I find myself on the floor of the scanner, and hear Odd's scanner door open. We both get up and head for the elevator. As soon as we get up there, Jeremie turns to me.

"So, what's the deal with Ulrich? No one has heard from you since you went looking for him yesterday after breakfast."

"Shouldn't we be figuring out why XANA deactivated his own tower?" I ask trying to avoid the subject.

"I think XANA wants to be able to use that tower again. If he deactivates it himself, he can. If we do it, he can't. But don't avoid the question, what were you and Ulrich doing?"

I feel myself blush, I turn away from Jeremie to see Odd smirking at me.

"Ooh, she's blushing. That means they probably kissed!" Odd says laughing.

"Jeremie, what does it mean when you blush?" Aelita asks.

"I'll tell you later okay? Come on Yumi, we'd like to know why Ulrich couldn't help us." Jeremie says looking impatient.

"Well… uh…um…" I blush even harder.

"Come on Yumi, just start from the beginning. What happened after you went looking for him?" Odd says.

"Well, I went into the forest to his favorite tree. When I called, he didn't answer. So I started climbing to see if he was up there."

"And?"

"Well, the branch broke underneath me. I barely managed to grab onto another branch and keep from falling twenty feet. I hear Ulrich yell from down below and he started climbing."

"Did he save you and you guys make out?" Odd asks. I shake my head, even though I blush some more. I didn't know it was possible to blush this deeply.

"The branch I was holding on to broke, and I fell. He jumped out and grabbed me in midair. He used himself to protect me, he landed first and I landed on top of him. He was hurt and he blacked out. I managed to get him to the infirmary, that's where he is now. His back is seriously messed up and he's got at least one broken rib."

I finally feel my face start to return to it's normal shade.

"So, did you give him the Christmas present I recommended? I noticed you didn't on Christmas." Odd says and I, of course, start blushing again.

"What Christmas present?" Jeremie asks.

"Yumi came to me asking for ideas of what to get Ulrich." Odd says.

"You went to Odd? **What were you thinking!**" Jeremie says.

"So I told her to kiss Ulrich. That's what he really wanted for Christmas." Odd says.

"Odd, you are the most harebrained, weird, psychopathic little-." Jeremie says but Odd interrupts. "So did you give it to him?"

I bury my face in my hands and nod my head. Odd laughs, Jeremie is dumbstruck, and Aelita squeals.

"So… what did he do?" Jeremie asks.

"He… he kissed me back…." I say through my hands. No one looks surprised at this, but everyone seems happy still. I remember my promise to keep Ulrich posted and pull out my phone. I tell him that everything is okay, there was no need to return to the past, and that Odd Aelita and Jeremie now know about… it. We head back to the school, and we all decide to go with me to visit Ulrich. We have fun talking, but eventually we have to go to lunch. As we walk out into the hallway, I hear a crackling noise. I turn around and see the outlet nearest to the infirmary is sparking.

"Jeremie, look at this!" I turn around, but it stopped, it looks normal now. "The outlet, it was just sparking a second ago…"

"Probably just the faulty wiring in this school. One day this school is going to kill us all, I just know it." Odd says laughing. We all join in.

_It was just a quick spark, nothing to worry about…

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**Okay, don't expect another chappy for week or so. I want a poll on what you guys want to happen in the next one:**

**1 Ulrich is somehow possessed by XANA **

**2 Yumi is possessed by XANA and forced to hurt Ulrich**

**3 Someone else is possessed (preferably a member of the gang)  
**

**4 No one is possessed, XANA attacks Ulrich some other way**

**5 Something else should happen (Give me an idea)**

**6 Nothing happens, everything is okey-dokey, and Ulrich recovers fine. (If anyone picks this one, i'll personally take them out)**

**Please tell me what you want, i can make a story out of any of these. **_  
_


	3. Chapter 3

**This long-awaited chapter is dedicated to animebabygirl, because I promised I would. I'm sorry it took so long to update, I've been grounded from the internet. And I still am. Lucky for you, my massive computer skills (or those I wish that I had) has allowed me to sneak on for a couple minutes. Don't expect another chappy for quite a while...**

**Thank all you people who reviewed! I really wanted #2, but I guess even I got outvoted. I hope your all happy! The one with the most votes was easily #4, with at least 15. Second place was #2. I can't believe some people would pick #6, that's a boring plot!**

**Okay, I'm rambling again. Enjoy this chappy or else!

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(Ulrich P.O.V.) 

After the others leave for lunch, I find myself overcome by boredom. I take Yumi's notebook, the one she used to draw me, and flip through it. It's actually filled with doodles of various members of the gang. Me, Odd, Jeremie, Odd in a cat suit, Aelita on Lyoko, Me, Jeremie again, me again. I flip through and find that many of them were of me. I flip to a new page and start drawing. It's easy to visualize Yumi, I've only been dreaming about her for years. I start drawing, and though I'm not as good as Yumi or Odd, I still manage to produce a pretty decent picture in a short amount of time. I finish and put the notebook back. As soon as it's back, Jeremie, Aelita and Odd walk in.

"Hey guys, where's Yumi?"

"She just stopped for a second to check something. She be here in a-." Odd was cut off by Yumi walking in.

"Hi Yumi." I say.

"Hey, I brought you some food like I promised." She holds a bag up to me. I take it eagerly. "It's actually really good today."

"Really?" I take a bite. (A/N: I don't really care what it is, use your imagination.)

"Holy Shit! The cafeteria actually produced food that wasn't burnt, formless slop!"

"I know." Odd says as Dorothy walks in.

"You need to leave now. He needs to rest." She says rather stiffly. Her voice sounds weird, like sandpaper grinding against itself.

"Are you okay? You sound sick." Aelita asks.

"I'll be fine. I just have a sore throat." She shoos everyone from the room, Yumi kisses me really quickly before leaving. Dorothy walks over and grabs my bottle of pills. She puts it in her pocket and pulls out another bottle.

"What are you doing?" I ask as I lay down again.

"Those pills were insufficient. These new ones will be much more effective." She leaves without another word.

_Dorothy is acting really weird._

My back is starting to bother me again, so I grab the new bottle and open it. I toss two of them into my mouth and take a drink of water. Dorothy was right, these were a lot better. I feel the pain go away quickly. Being able to lie on my back now, I lay down and fall asleep quickly.

(Yumi P.O.V.)

After Dorothy shoos us out, I decide to head home. My parents are probably worried about where I am. I walk up to find the door locked. I pull out my house key and let myself in. I walk over to the answering machine and press play. As I walk over to make myself a sandwich I listen to the messages. A message from my Dad's work, a message for Hiroki… then my mom's voice comes on.

"Yumi dear, we have to stay in Paris for a while, we have some things we need to take care of. We should be home about when school starts again. I love you honey, bye." I chew on my sandwich and think about this for a while. I get to spend as much time with Ulrich as I want. I quickly change my clothes and head back over to the school. I walk into the infirmary and see someone lying on the floor.

"Dorothy!" I run over to her and look at her. She just looks like she's unconscious. After a second when she doesn't respond, I think I realize something.

Dorothy was acting really weird earlier… XANA must have possessed her! Ulrich!

I rush over to Ulrich's room and open the door to find him sleeping. In my haste to get to him, my elbow knocks over his bottle of pills, spilling it's contents all over the counter. I get to Ulrich and try to wake him.

"Ulrich? Ulrich!" He doesn't respond. I have a horrible thought and look back at the pill bottle. The bottom of the container has XANA's eye in blazing red. I shake Ulrich in a desperate attempt to wake him up, but he just lays there. I put my head on his chest, he's barely breathing. I pull out my cell and call Jeremie.

"Hello?"

"Jeremie! XANA has attacked Ulrich!"

"Okay call Odd and meet me at the factory. I'll grab Aelita on my way there." I hang up and press 2, the speed dial for Odd. His phone is off, I can't reach him. I run out of the room and head for the most likely place he would be: the cafeteria. The one time they serve good food, and Odd is not going to miss a moment of it. I run inside and see him sitting alone at a table. I run over and grab his arm.

"XANA attacked Ulrich, let's go." I don't even give him a chance to respond, I pull him out of his chair and run away at full speed. He's right behind me and we head for the park. We're in the factory in record time and go down to the scanners. Without saying a word, Jeremie scans us in and we land in the ice sector.

"Okay guys, about ten monsters ahead of you, Aelita is already there and waiting." We hop on our already waiting vehicles and speed towards Aelita. As we come close, I pull out my fans. With one swift motion, I take out a block and deflect a shot with the other. I fly overtop a crab and destroy it, but my Overwing gets shot down by a roachster. I fall to the ground, but not before releasing a fan, destroying the little bugger. I grab my fan as it comes around and deflect a couple of shots from a crab. I fling both my fans and destroy the crab and it's partner. I catch my fans and turn around just in time to see a tarantula release enough lasers to kill three of me. I de-virtualize, just in time to see Odd destroy it with a shot from a laser arrow. I see everything go white and find myself back in my scanner. I pounds my fist against the floor.

"Dammit!" I stand up and walk into the elevator. Instead of going to the control room like normal, I call Jeremie.

"Jeremie, I'm going to go and check up on Ulrich."

"Okay Yumi, hurry up. Odd's having a tough time with the remaining monsters. I don't know if he can destroy the last ones."

"We need to do a return trip on this one, Ulrich is hurt. Keep me posted."

"Will do Yumi." I hit the end button just as the elevator doors open. I race out of the factory and back to the school. I enter the infirmary and rush to Ulrich's room. He's not moving in his bed. He slept with his shirt off, so I can see his bare chest. Normally I would stare at the awesome sight, but this time, I'm appalled by it. Ulrich's chest is blazing red with the XANA symbol. I put my hand against his forehead, it's burning white hot. I wet down a rag and apply it to his head in an attempt to slow down whatever XANA was trying to do. I touch XANA's infamous symbol and pull away immediately. My finger was actually burned, it's scorching hot. I move the rag down to his chest, it hisses and steams. Ulrich starts twitching, so I remove it. I take his pulse, it's extremely slow. His chest barely moves, so he's not breathing well.

I sit for a couple minutes with my head in my hands, trying to think of any way I could help. I can't think of a thing, nothing I know can help my love now. I hear a noise and look up to see Ulrich twitching again. I stand up and walk over to his bed. I try to restrain him a little bit, but it's as if I'm doing nothing. It gets worse until it's full out convulsions. He thrashing around on his bed, until it finally stops. XANA's eye disappears from his chest, he settles back down. I hear him give one last breath out and then… nothing. I put my ear to his chest, his heart has stopped, as did his breathing.

"No… Ulrich… no!" I wrap my arms around him and cry. I just want to kiss him… one last time. I lean up to his face and kiss him gently. I pull away quickly when I feel his breath on me.

_He's alive!_

I put my ear to his chest again, his heart has resumed beating and he's breathing again. Unfortunately, the XANA symbol comes back. It's weak at first, but soon shines as brilliant and malevolent as before. I look out the window and start to cry again.

No… he can't leave me again! 

I curse XANA for trying to take him away just after he escaped. I look out the window and begin to curse God as well, but stop. I see something in the distance that puts all my fears to rest. I feel overjoyed, I start crying again, but this time they are tears of happiness. I go back to Ulrich and hug him as a brilliant white light encloses us both.

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"The cafeteria produced food that wasn't burnt, formless slop!" Ulrich says and stops. I quickly put my arms around him again, trying not to touch his wounds. 

"Uh… what happened?" He asks.

"Let's just say XANA decided to try and kill you off." I say, still refusing to let go.

"Well Y-Yumi, XANA m-might not h-have to." I let go and see that he was getting red in the face from lack of oxygen. I blush and mumble my apologies.

"Careful Yumi. If you kill off Ulrich we're going to have a lot of trouble on our hands." Odd says smiling. Ulrich just yawns.

"I think it's time to go, Ulrich needs to rest some more." Jeremie says. Everyone else leaves the room without question, but I don't want to go.

"Yumi? What happened to me?" He asks me with sad eyes.

"XANA possessed Dorothy and used her to switch your pills. I don't know what exactly they did, but you stopped breathing and your heart stopped beating." His eyes widen.

"He knows I'm vulnerable…."

"I will not let anyone hurt you Ulrich, I promise."

"Thanks Yumi. Could you hand me my pills? My back is starting to hurt again…." I quickly grab the bottle of pills from the counter and hand it to him. He looks it over.

"What are you doing?"

"That's how XANA got me last time, I'm going to be more careful now." He takes out two pills and swallows them. "Yumi, shouldn't you be home now? You're parents are probably worried."

"No, they're out of town until school begins again."

"What about Hiroki?"

"He's staying at a friend's house, he'll be back a couple days before my parents."

"Well, what are you going to do? School doesn't start for a week."

"I don't know, and you shouldn't care. I've talked to you long enough, time for you to sleep. I'll be back later, you can call me anytime, okay?" I stand up.

"But-."

"No buts. I'll see you later, and you'd better get some sleep." And with that, I leave the room. I know Ulrich will go to sleep only because I told him to, but at least he's sleeping….

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**Yah, I know, that was a crummy ending. Count your blessings people, I almost couldn't even update this!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys, sorry for the long wait in between updates. I just have other stories that i'm working on, and i've been neglecting this one. I'll try harder. You guys need to review more, i'm running low on ideas. That's another thing thats slowing me down. more reviewssooner chapters. I promise. This chapter is dedicated to my brother. Without his constant 'hey, whats that?' I would never have gotten this done. I just finished it so he'd stop asking me about it.**

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(Odd P.O.V.) 

It's been four days since Ulrich's incident, and three days since XANA attacked him. So far, he's been able to recover without incident, and today Dorothy said she would let him go back to our dorm. I spent most of today cleaning up our dorm to make sure everything is comfortable for him. Yumi meets us at lunch and afterwards we all go to visit Ulrich.

"Hey buddy, how's it goin?" I ask him.

"Like I fell out of a tree and had Yumi land on top of me." He says. That's his standard answer whenever anyone asks him that. He also refuses to say whether it is good or bad.

"How are you feeling?" Yumi asks.

"I feel like I want to get out of this damn infirmary." He says and smiles. "Or, in other words, better." She ruffles his hair.

"That's good."

"I've got to thank you Odd. Without you, I would be bored out of my mind in here." He smiles at me.

"What did he do?" Jeremie asks. Ulrich reaches over and grabs something from his bedside table.

"Tetris annihilator. Odd, I beat your high score." He tosses it to me. I turn it on and look at it.

"Dude, you didn't beat it. You destroyed it! It's double what mine was!"

"Well, hours of free time will do that to you. I mean, I can only sleep for so long." Dorothy picked this moment to walk in.

"Well Ulrich, let's see how you're doing." She says. Yumi help Ulrich take his shirt off so that Dorothy can inspect him.

"Well Ulrich, there's good and bad news."

"Okay, bad news first."

"Well, you're still hurt pretty badly. It still looks like you got in a fight with a lawnmower and lost." Ulrich looks downcast.

"So… the good news?" I ask. Dorothy smiles.

"The good news is you're well enough that you can leave." Everyone breaks into cheers, especially Ulrich.

"But-" Everyone goes silent, "You have to be extremely careful with yourself. No sports, no running, use your common sense." She hands him his bottle of painkillers "These pills are pretty strong, so make sure you don't take too much. You could end up in the hospital. If you feel any serious pain when breathing come back here immediately. You could have hurt your chest even worse."

"Don't worry. I'll be careful."

"And we'll make sure he doesn't do anything to strenuous." Yumi says and glares at me. "Right Odd?"

"Uh… sure. Just one thing. What does strenuous mean?" I say. Everyone laughs, including Dorothy.

"Just make sure he doesn't work too hard." I give her a thumbs up. Dorothy smiles and exits

"Okay, great. Why doesn't everyone just use simple terms like that? It makes it easier for everyone."

"Because that would be no fun Odd." Jeremie says. "Besides, it's fun to stump you at these kinds of things."

"Oh yah? Do it again."

"Okay. Odd, your brain is discombobulated."

"Woah, is that a real word?" Jeremie nods.

"Cool! What does it mean?"

"It means thrown into a state of confusion."

"Cool. I'm going to use that every chance I get!"

"Odd, you're weird. Come on, help me up. I want to get out of this hellhole." Ulrich says. I help him stand up and he puts his shirt back on. He's somewhat unsteady when walking, but he doesn't fall down. We walk outside, it's not all that cold out. We didn't get very much snow this year, and it was all in the beginning of December. Ulrich looks at me with a grin.

"Hey Odd, wanna run a marathon with me?" Yumi looks shocked.

"Ulrich, that's not even funny!"

"Oh come on, just one little marathon. Please?" He smiles.

"Okay. But if you die, I'm not going to be sad." Ulrich feigns offense and turns away.

"That's not very nice to say to your boyfriend."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Please forgive me?"

"Already done." He turns around and kisses her.

"Eeew!" I yell. Yumi turns around and smacks me upside the head. "Ow, what was that for?"

"Oh, nothing." She smiles at me mischievously.

"Uh oh, I don't like that grin. What are you thinking?"

"Oh nothing."

"You just repeated yourself."

"I know." Someone else smacks me upside the head. "Ow! Who did that?" I turn around to see everyone else looking at me innocently. "Okay guys, that's just not fair." Aelita bursts out laughing. I turn around and look at Yumi.

"Yumi, she smacks me harder than you do!" Yumi raises her hand again, I duck and cover my head. "Don't kill me!"

"I wasn't going to kill you Odd." She puts her hand on my shoulder and I relax. She hits me upside the head, lightly this time. "I was just going to do that." I stand up and rub the back of my head, which is sore.

"You guys are mean." Yumi and Aelita put their arms around me.

"Oh come on Odd, you know we love you." They say together.

"Hey!" Jeremie and Ulrich say at the same time, which makes everyone laugh. After the smack-Odd bonanza was over, we went over to our dorm room so Ulrich can get a fresh change of clothes. He opens the door and gasps in surprise.

"What?" I ask.

"It's clean!"

"Yah, I cleaned it."

"But but… it's clean! Our room is never clean!"

"Well, apparently it is now." Ulrich steps inside.

"Woah… we have a floor? With a carpet?"

"Okay, that's just not funny. It wasn't that messy…." Everyone just laughs and waits outside for Ulrich to change. Ulrich comes back out looking happy.

"Man, that feels good. So, what do you want to do for the rest of the day?" Yumi smiles.

"My parents are out of town. They won't be back for another couple of days."

"PARTY!" I yell and pump my hands in the air.

"You took the words right out of my mouth Odd." Yumi says. We all smile and begin our walk towards Yumi's house.

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**You can only imagine what i'm going to make them do at the party. Any suggestions would be hot, I need em. Just no suggestions for lemons, I don't do that. R&R people!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys, heres the chapter. Sorry it took so long. I have three stories going right now and it's sometimes hard to balance them all. As soon as this one is finished I have another basically waiting in the wing. I just have to write it. Anyway... enjoy!**

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(Ulrich P.O.V.) 

I make it to Yumi's house just fine, no problems on the way. Odd was having some problems though, and by now he has a very sore head. Yumi wanted to help me up the stairs to her house (by help she means basically carry me) but I refused and did it myself.

"See guys, I'm hurt. Not dead." I had said when I reached the top.

"Well, fine. You don't want our help, we won't give it." Yumi says with a mocking pout.

"Oh… I'm so sorry Yumi. I didn't mean to offend you! Please forgive me! PLEASE!" I yell and go down on my knees. I put up my hands as though I'm praying. "Please god, let her forgive me… I mean, come on. Who else is going to cater to my every whim?" Yumi just shakes her head and laughs.

"Oh Ulrich! I have seen the error of my ways. I have repented of all my sins, and I forgive you." I laugh, and so does everyone else at the weird show we put on.

"Come on, let's go inside, it's cold out here." I say and stand up. I put my arm around Yumi and give her a quick peck on the cheek, and we walk inside her nice, cozy house.

"Yumi, your house is too clean. Good thing we're having a party, eh?" Odd says with a maniacal grin on his face.

"Odd, if you trash the place, you're cleaning up. Not me." Yumi says.

"Oh come on, everyone knows the host is who's supposed to clean up!"

"Whatever Odd. So, what do you guys wanna do? I didn't really think about this, it was on a whim."

"What's a-" Odd starts, but I interrupt him.

"Odd, go look it up. The dictionaries over there." I point to the wall where there's a bookcase. Odd shakes his head.

"Oh come on, you know I don't have the patience for that." He says and laughs. "So, how about food? Come on, you've got to get some food!" Odd starts jumping around. Yumi laughs and shakes her head.

"I'll order some pizza." She walks over and picks up the phone. She dials a couple of numbers and listens for a sec.

"Yah, I'd like to place an order… yah… one medium pepperoni, one small vegetarian, and one… uh" She looks at us, and Odd starts yelling meat-lovers. "And one meat-lovers. Yah, make it large… yah… um, I don't know. How 'bout a root beer and a coke? Okay… put it on the Ishiyama tab. Okay, bye." She looks at us and gives us a thumbs up.

"Why the vegetarian?" I ask confused. Even Yumi isn't vegetarian.

"I just don't like all the greasy meats." She shrugs her shoulders. "Hope you guys like root beer and coke, that's what I ordered."

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. Do you really think we can eat three pizzas by ourselves?" Jeremie asks. I just start laughing.

"Jeremie, look behind you." He turns around to see Odd in the kitchen, looking for anything to tide him over until the pizza arrives.

"Oh yah, I forgot. Odd's basically the human garbage disposal, isn't he?"

"Yup. The pizzas should be here in 20 minutes, or else it's free." Odd gets a devilish look on his face while snacking on an apple.

"Odd, what are you thinking? I don't like that look…." Yumi says with a frown. Odd smiles innocently.

"Oh, no reason. By the way, does Hiroki have a pea shooter?" Yumi just shrugs.

"I don't know, maybe. If he did, it would be in his room." Odd finishes the apple and tosses in the garbage while running up the stairs. He comes back down holding something behind his back.

"Hey guys, I'll be back in a couple minutes, alright?" He opens the door. "By the way, don't be alarmed if the pizza is late." He says and closes the door. Everyone else exchanges worried looks.

"I think I'm going to go after him. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." I say and walk towards the door. Yumi grabs my hand and stops me.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine, whatever he's doing." She smiles and I give an exasperated sigh.

"Okay, but if he did something stupid, it's not my fault." I say. Aelita just laughs.

"Don't worry Ulrich. We wouldn't blame you anyway." We sit and talk mindlessly for a couple of minutes, until we hear Odd come back in.

"Hey Odd, where'd you go?" He just shrugs.

"Ah, nowhere."

"Don't pull that crap with me. Where did you go?"

"I'll tell you when the pizza gets here." After about half an hour, the doorbell rings.

"Oh, that's probably the pizza." She gets up and answers the door. An apologetic-looking delivery boy is standing holding some pizzas. I walk up I time to hear him say a couple of things.

"Sorry your pizza is late ma'am, I got a flat tire on the way over here. Because I was late, your pizza is free of charge. Sorry for the inconvenience." He says. Yumi hands him a small tip and takes the pizzas and sodas from him.

"Good day Ma'am." He says and walks back to his car. Yumi closes the door and turns around.

"Well, that was convenient. Free pizza." I say and stop.

_Odd leaves with a pea-shooter… and the pizza guy is late. Something is fishy here._

"Odd! What did you do?" I turn around and practically yell at Odd. He just starts laughing. He pull a long, thin tube out of his pocket, that must be the pea shooter. He reaches into his other pocket and pulls out a couple of peas.

"Let's just say the driver didn't get an accidental flat." He says, grinning from ear to ear.

"How did you do it? Peas can't pop tires."

"No, they can't. Not normally anyway." He holds one out to me and I take it. I immediately drop it in pain.

"Ow!" The pea poked me.

_Wait a minute, the pea poked me? How could a pea poke me?_

I pick it up from the floor. The pea had a small needle going through it, which had poked me. I look at my finger, it's bleeding slightly. I put in my mouth and suck on it.

"Odd, how did you do this? This is brilliant!" Jeremie says after inspecting it.

"I read it in a book once." Everyone does a double-take.

"You read it in a book?" Everyone yells at once and starts laughing. The phone rings and Yumi goes to answer it. I walk over to her and put my arm around her.

"Yah… okay. No, it's no problem. I understand. We'll be right over. I'll be there in a couple of minutes. Goodbye." She hangs up the phone.

"What was that about?"

"The family that Hiroki is staying with has to take care of an emergency, and they need me to watch Hiroki and his friend for a while. I couldn't really turn them down, it's an emergency."

"Don't worry, the gang will understand." We walk back into the room and tell everyone else that Hiroki is going to stay for a while. Odd groans, Aelita is happy, and Jeremie doesn't seem to care.

"Ulrich and I will go get him." Yumi says.

"We will?" I ask, but Yumi gives me a glare. "I mean, uh, of course we will. See you guys later." Yumi and I walk out the door and she takes me to Hiroki's friend's house. I walk up and knock on the door. A stressed-looking lady opens the door and smiles.

"Oh Yumi, I'm so glad you're here. Who's this?"

"This is my boyfriend Ulrich."

"Oh, hello Ulrich. I'm Mrs. Stenous."

"Hi, nice to meet you." I shake her hand. She steps back and yells up the stairs.

"Hiroki! Aaron! Yumi's here, it's time for you to leave!" He turns back to us and smiles.

"Thank you so much for taking care of them."

"It's no problem. What's the emergency?"

"Oh, nothing serious. My cousin is in the hospital, he got in a car accident. He should be okay." Hiroki and a small boy about his age come running down the stairs. They quickly get their shoes and jackets on and walk out the door with us.

"Thanks again Yumi!" Mrs. Stenous says.

"It's no problem." We smile and wave as she shuts the door.

"Hi Yumi, hi Ulrich." Hiroki says.

"Hey Hiroki, what's up?" Hiroki doesn't answer, he's looking at my hand, which happens to be holding Yumi's. Then he starts laughing.

"Haha! Ulrich loves Yuuuuumi! Yumi loves UUUUUlrich!" He and his friend start laughing. Yumi looks mad, but I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Yes, Hiroki. I do." Hiroki immediately stops laughing and looks at us.

"Eeew! That's gross!" He and his friend make faces. Just to make fun of them, I lean over and kiss Yumi, who returns it. Hiroki puts his hands over his eyes.

"Eeew! Make it stop! Make it stop!" He and his friend run off ahead laughing.

"Hey! Slow down!" Yumi says, but they just keep running.

"Come on Yumi, let's go catch up to them. They could get hurt." I say and smile at her.

"But, your back…."

"Don't worry, if it hurts too bad, I'll stop." She nods and we start jogging. Not too fast, but not slow either. A pretty decent pace. It doesn't hurt bad, it's just uncomfortable. Pretty soon we catch up to them and convince them to slow down and walk with us.

"So Hiroki, are you going to introduce me to your friend?"

"He's Aaron." Hiroki says, pointing. Yumi looks like she's about to scold him for the rude introduction, but I talk before she can say anything.

"Hi Aaron, I'm Ulrich, Yumi's boyfriend." I still give me goosebumps to say that. Something I have wanted for so long… Yumi's boyfriend….

We arrive at the house and walk inside. Odd, Aelita, and Jeremie are laughing on the couch.

"Hey guys, we're back." Yumi says when we walk in.

"I see that." Jeremie replies.

"Who's this?" Aelita asks, pointing towards Aaron and Hiroki.

"This is Hiroki, my little brother, and his friend, Aaron."

"Hi, my name is Aelita." She says.

"Hi Aelita." They both say at the same time and laugh.

"Hiroki, you and Aaron can't make too much noise, okay?" Yumi says.

"Yah, sure whatever." They say and run off to Hiroki's room. I'm a little bit hungry, so I walk over to grab a slice of pizza. I whirl around and look at Odd.

"Odd!"

"What?" He throws up his hands in defense.

"You ate all the meat-lovers!"

"Hey, I was hungry."

"Stinkin Odd… eating all the good pizza." I mumble as I grab a slice of pepperoni. Hiroki and Aaron come running back down the stairs, Hiroki is holding something in his hand.

"Can you all come into the TV room for a minute?" He asks nicely. I shrug at Yumi and she shrugs back. We walk into the living room and take a seat on the couch. Hiroki walks into the middle with Aaron next to him and pulls out a small, thin black book. He opens it up and flips to a page in the middle. I hear Yumi gasps next to me and I turn to look at her. She's as pale as a ghost.

"Ahem," Hiroki begins, "December 23rd 2005. William asked me out today… but I said no. Not mean, but I casually let him know that I didn't feel about him that way, and that I'd rather just be his friend. He thought it was because of Ulrich, and I denied it."

I realize what Hiroki is holding, it's Yumi's diary. Odd begins to laugh as Aelita and Jeremie look mad. Yumi looks furious and she stands up.

"How dare you steal my diary!" She yells and lunges for him. He dives out of the way and tosses it to Aaron. Aaron begins reading again.

"Little did William know that it was because of Ulrich. I wish he would hurry up and ask me out already… Odd, Jeremie, and Aelita all say he likes me, but I'm not so sure." Aaron laughs and closes the book. Yumi dives for him, but he tosses it back towards Hiroki. Hiroki opens it again and begins to read some more.

"December 26th 2005. I'm sitting in the infirmary right now, next to Ulrich. This morning, I went looking for him after he stomped off. I went to his tree in the park and began to climb. The branch broke underneath me and Ulrich had to dive off to save me. I got him to the infirmary as soon as I could. Dorothy said he should be okay, just cuts and bruises. I had to help her take his pants off to she could see if his legs were injured. He looked so cute lying there in his boxers…." At that point, both Yumi and I blush. Hiroki tosses the book back to Aaron, but I catch it in the air.

"Okay boys, that's enough for tonight." I say and scowl at them. They just run off laughing. I give the book back to Yumi, and she takes it back, still blushing like mad. I smile and take her by the hand, sitting us both down on the couch. I lean close and whisper in her ear.

"You're cute when you blush." She just blushes some more and doesn't say anything. After a minute, Hiroki comes back down the stairs with a PS2.

"Hey guys, can we play down here? My TV isn't working."

"Oh come on Hiroki-" Yumi begins, but Aelita interrupts.

"Of course you can." Yumi sends her a death glare, but Aelita just smiles. I don't think Aelita knows the meaning of the word 'no'. Hiroki plugs his PS2 into the TV and turns it on. It comes up with a Dragonball Z fighting game. He and Aaron sit and play for a while, while we keep talking.

"Hey Ulrich, do you want to play?" Hiroki asks me. I shrug my shoulders.

"Okay." I sit down on the floor next to him and Hiroki teaches me the controls. I play a little, but I'm not very good. Odd sits and watches us play. After my character, Gohan, gets KO'd the fourth time by Hiroki, playing Goku, I hand the controller to Odd.

"Here, you play." I say. He shrugs his shoulders. He plays Hiroki a couple of times and learns really fast. After the third time, he beats Hiroki.

"See Ulrich? It's not hard to learn."

"Odd, if you spent as much effort learning in school you would be passing." He just laughs and they play again. I walk back over and sit on the couch next to Yumi.

"Get beaten again?"

"How did you know?"

"I've played that game more times than I can count." We all laugh and watch Odd play Hiroki for a while.

"You're gonna die clown!" Odd yells, really getting into the game.

"Much to learn, you still have my young padawan." Hiroki says confidently. He pulls some kind of super move and Odd groans. Aaron starts laughing.

"Dude, you are awesome! You just pulled the Ultimate Explosion!" He gives Hiroki a high five.

"What's the Ultimate Explosion?" Jeremie asks casually. This is funny, Odd is getting beaten by ten year olds.

"It's only the most powerful move in the game!" Hiroki says laughing. Odd rubs his forehead and sighs.

"You just did nine thousand damage." He says.

"Is that bad?" I ask, just to humor him.

"My character can only take seven thousand at max." Everyone starts laughing except for Odd.

"Come on, let's go again!" Odd yells and they go at it again.

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**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and gave suggestions, I tried to work some of them in. Some of them, I just didn't like (no offense). I liked the idea of Hiroki coming home and stealing Yumi's diary, I just thought it would be fun.**

**Trust me, the next chapter will prove that this is unlike any party before it. R&R people! I leave all my other stories with quotes, so I plan to do the same with this one:**

**307. When I die, bury me upside down so the whole world can kiss my ass!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for the long wait, I more or less just keep forgetting about this one. I have two other stories going right now, it's hard to find a balance. Anyways, on with the story!**

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(Yumi P.O.V.) 

After about half an hour, I managed to persuade Hiroki and Aaron to go upstairs and play quietly. I had already put my diary in a safe place, so there's no worries about him finding it.

"Okay guys, movie time!" Odd yells. "What do you guys wanna watch?"

"Don't care."

"Whatever."

"You pick."

"Anything."

"You guys are boring." Odd walks over and picks a movie from the rack. He pops it in and turns on the TV.

"Okay, since you guys have no taste, we're gonna watch one of my favorite movies… The Village!"

"That's nice Odd." Jeremie says and leans back contentedly. Aelita snuggles up close to him and lays her head on his shoulder.

"Have any of you seen it?" Jeremie and Aelita both shake their head.

Ulrich just shrugs, "Parts of it."

"I've seen it. It's a pretty good movie." I say.

"Whoo-hoo! Someone else who's seen a good movie!" He plops down on the couch next to me, and presses play on the remote. Ulrich puts his arm around me and I lay my head on his shoulder. He kisses me gently on the head and I smile contentedly. Aelita's only been on earth for a couple of months, so she hasn't seen it. Jeremie doesn't watch movies, period. Ulrich doesn't like very many movies, I can understand that. I don't like many movies either. But Odd has seen them all. Everything from The Notebook to Star Wars III.

During the movie, Aelita squeals a couple of times. I don't think this was a good choice for her. After it ends, I look up at Ulrich, he's been asleep this entire time. Considering the awkward position I'm in (his arm is around my waist) I don't have much of a choice but to stay there. It's only 10:30, I'm surprised he's asleep already. I lay my head back against his soft chest and make myself comfortable. Aelita giggles and Jeremie just smiles. Odd gets a devilish look on his face again.

"Odd, you touch him and you'll lose the ability to have children." I say quietly and Odd winces.

"Ooh, good point. Don't worry Yumi, I won't touch him. And even if I did, I'd just blame it on you."

"Thanks Odd. You're such a good friend." I say sarcastically and roll my eyes.

"Jeremie, what does that mean? Odd is a boy, he can't have children." Aelita says. I wince, Odd begins laughing, and Jeremie blushes.

"Um… Aelita? Have you ever heard the talk about the birds and the bees?" I ask. She shakes her head.

"No, what's that?"

"Alright, who's going to tell Aelita about the birds and the bees?" Odd asks laughing still, while Jeremie blushes again.

"Well Jeremie, you are her boyfriend." I say fairly. Jeremie shakes his head vigorously.

"N-no, no. Not m-me. I-I can't d-do it." He says stuttering like crazy.

"Of course you can Jeremie. We have faith in you." Odd says.

"Please Jeremie?" Aelita asks with a puppy-dog face. Jeremie sighs.

"Oh, alright. You know I can't resist the face."

"Yay!" Aelita squeals and Odd leads them away.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Jeremie asks over his shoulder.

"We've already heard 'the talk.' We don't need to hear it again. Go on you two." Jeremie and Aelita walk upstairs hand-in-hand, while Odd sits back down on the couch.

"So Yumi, did you really think Ulrich was cute in his boxers?" Odd asks me and I blush again.

"Gorgeous." I mumble.

"What was that?"

"I though Ulrich looked gorgeous in his boxers, okay?" I say loudly.

I feel a pair of lips on top of my head followed by Ulrich's voice, "You're not bad yourself." I look up at him.

"Well thank you." I lean up and kiss him. "How long have you been awake?"

"Just long enough to hear about the birds and the bees." He pulls his arm out from around me and fishes in his pocket. I shiver from the loss of extra body heat, but stop as Ulrich pulls out his bottle of pills. He takes a couple and puts them back in his pocket.

"My back was beginning to hurt a little bit." He says when we give him an inquisitive look.

"Can I have a look?" I ask quietly.

"Uh, yah. Sure." I help him pull his shirt off carefully. This is the first time I've really gotten a chance to really look at his injuries. Mostly they're just small cuts and bruises, but a couple fairly large ones. The biggest is a large thick cut from his right shoulder to his left hip. It has multiple stitches.

"Geez Ulrich, is there anything you won't do for Yumi?" Odd asks incredulously as he looks over my shoulder.

"Nope. I would die for her." I blush and kiss him on the cheek.

"Thank you. How does your chest feel?" I ask as I run my finger gently over his lean, muscular back. He gasps and I stop. "Sorry." I mumble.

"It's okay. You just hit a sore spot."

"Dorothy said it's a good thing you're in such good shape. It really helps with the healing process."

"Okay, I'm going to check on Jeremie and Aelita. They've been gone too long." Odd says. He walks upstairs, and a moment later we hear him yell 'Woah!' and a door slam shut. He comes back down holding his head in his hands.

"Man, that was a weird sight." He says.

"What?" Ulrich and I ask at the same time.

"I found Aelita and Jeremie in the bathroom. Can you guess what they were doing?"

"Kissing?"

"How about a total make-out in the bathtub. Jeremie was missing his shirt." Ulrich and I both twitch.

"That's disturbing…." I help Ulrich out his shirt back on as Aelita and Jeremie come back down, hand in hand. Jeremie, thankfully, had his shirt back on.

"So… Jeremie. Is Aelita pregnant yet?" Ulrich asks playfully. Jeremie blushes farther than I had ever seen him go. Aelita blushes too, but just a little bit.

"Uh… no. And she won't be… for a while. I hope." Aelita just nods.

"Is here any pizza left? I'm starved." Ulrich asks no one in particular. He stands up and walks over to the kitchen and I follow him. Ulrich grabs a slice of pepperoni and I grab a slice of vegetarian. We put them both on a plate and pop them in the microwave for a thirty seconds.

"I love you Yumi." Ulrich says and wraps his arms around me. He kisses me on the cheek.

"Woah. What's with the sudden display of affection?" I ask.

"Oh nothing. I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you."

"Well thank you." I kiss him tenderly on the lips and the pizza is done. I grab my slice and take a bite.

"I'm going to go and check on Hiroki, okay?" Ulrich says. I nod my head and walk upstairs with him. Hiroki and Aaron are fast asleep on the floor. Their game is still running on their TV, it looks like they just fell asleep while playing.

"Aww, they're so cute while they're sleeping." I say. Hiroki is laying flat on his back, the controller by his side. Aaron is curled up into a ball, he's even sucking his thumb.

"Wait, didn't they say their TV was broken?" Ulrich asks.

"Yah… they did."

"Ha, they probably just wanted to spend time with the big kids." I switch off the TV and the PS2.

"I'll cover them up." Ulrich says. He grabs Hiroki's blanket off his bed and covers them with it. I smile and walk back downstairs. A couple minutes later, Ulrich walks down and sits next to me. We laugh and talk and have fun for a couple of hours, we even watch another movie. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This movie is stupid, there's no definitive plot. But Odd likes it, so we watch it. By the time the movie is over, Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd are asleep. Ulrich switches off the TV and the DVD player and sits next to me. I glance at the clock, it's 1:30. I snuggle up to Ulrich and fall fast asleep.

* * *

Some time during the night, Ulrich gets up. I wake up and shiver because of the loss of extra body heat. 

"Ulrich? What are you doing?" I ask, still half asleep. I feel something soft get pressed to my face really hard, it makes it hard to breathe. My eyes snap open to see a large white pillow in my face. I'm suffocating! I lash out with my foot and connect with something hard. The pillow falls away and I see Ulrich standing there.

"Ulrich?" I ask quietly, incredulously. Ulrich looks at me with Xana's symbol in his eyes. "Ulrich!" Everyone else wakes up, just in time to see Ulrich lunge for me. A well placed punch from him nearly connects with my head, I just barely manage to parry.

"Jeremie! Ulrich's possessed!" Odd drop kicks Ulrich from behind and he falls down.

"We have to get to the factory!" Odd yells. He help Aelita and Jeremie up, and I see something else. Hiroki and Aaron are at the bottom of the stairs, looking with wide eyes. Ulrich sits up and spots them. He laughs and runs over to them. Before he can reach them, he's sprawled out on the ground again from a kick by me.

"Take Hiroki and Aaron to the factory, I'll hold him off here." I yell to Jeremie. He nods and they all run out the door.

* * *

(Hiroki P.O.V.) 

I woke in the middle of the night because Yumi was screaming, so I shake Aaron awake. He sits up and we both run downstairs to see Odd kick Ulrich in the head. We just stand there petrified.

"We need to get to the factory!" Odd yells while helping Jeremie and Aelita off the couch. They turn around and see me and Aaron standing here. Ulrich jumps at us with a mean look in his eyes, but Yumi kicks him again. Ulrich just lies there, but he's shimmering like some sort of hologram.

"Take Hiroki and Aaron to the factory, I'll hold him off here." Yumi says. Aaron and I run off with Aelita, Jeremie and Odd out the door. We run down the street towards the bad part of town. My mom said we should never go there, but I trust them. Eventually, Aaron and I have to stop, we can't run this hard. Jeremie Aaron on his back and keeps running, while Odd picks me up.

"Thanks Odd." I say, gasping for breath.

"No problem, quirt." He says and takes off again. After a couple more minutes, we reach a river. We cross a bridge and go into an old abandoned building.

"Hey Odd, where are we?"

"To the coolest place on Earth. You'll find out soon enough." He says. "Hold on tight." I grab on tightly as he runs inside and jumps off the ledge. He grabs a rope and swings down safely to the floor.

"That was cool!" I yell as everyone does the same. Aaron and I jump down and walk with everyone else into an elevator. Jeremie presses the big red button and the doors close. We go down a couple of floors and the doors open again. It shows a really big blue room, with a big projector-thing in the middle of it. Jeremie walks over and sits in a chair which is hanging in midair. He looks at this big computer that has three monitors, and it has lots of mumbo-jumbo on it.

"Okay, the tower is in the desert sector." Aelita and Odd get back into the elevator, Aaron and I begin to follow them, but Odd stops us.

"You had better stay here with Jeremie."

"Aw, that's no fun." I say and fold my arms. Odd just laughs and the door closes. Aaron and I walk back over to where Jeremie is typing at the computer.

"Hey Jeremie, what's the desert sector? And what's the tower?" Jeremie laughs a little.

"Okay, I'm going to try and explain it to you," he says without stopping typing, "but I'm going to have to 'dumb it down' a little bit. Basically, Me, Odd, Aelita, Ulrich, and your sister have to play this big game. There's a really hard bad guy on it, and he's trying to hurt us in the real world. Don't ask how, you won't understand. Hold on a second here…."

"Okay." Jeremie starts typing faster. He then says scanner, transfer, and virtualization before saying Odd and Aelita's name. He stops typing and turns to us.

"So the bad guy, who's named Xana, tries to hurt us, he activates a tower in the game. The only way to stop him is to turn off the tower. We can only do that by playing the game."

"Okay, that makes sense." Aaron says.

"What is the game like?"

"I don't know, I've never really played it. But it's basically a fighting game like the one you were playing earlier."

"So, it's like Dragonball Z?"

"Uh, yah."

"What kind of attacks do you get?" Aaron asks.

"It all depends on your character. When Ulrich goes into the game, he has a sword. When Yumi plays, she throws really sharp fans. Odd has these arrows that shoot out of his wrists."

"Cool." I say. "Wait, what about Aelita?"

"Aelita is special. She doesn't have any attacks."

"Doesn't seem all that special to me." I whisper to Aaron. He smiles and Jeremie shakes his head.

"You didn't let me finish. Aelita is the only one who can turn off the tower. So everyone else has to take care of her."

"Oh." Jeremie turns back to the computer screens.

"Odd, three hornets coming in at two o'clock."

"Thanks Jeremie." Odd's voice comes out of the computer.

"Woah, that's cool! Odd has a headset so he can talk and play at the same time!" I say.

"So what do you do?" Aaron asks Jeremie.

"I warn them of monsters that come in. Monsters are like henchmen of Xana, we fight them to win the game."

"Oh. Why can't they do that themselves."

"They can, but not as well. They can't see as much as I can."

"Oh."

"Nice going Odd. Two crabs are coming in on your right."

"Crabs! I hate crabs!" Odd yells from the computer. I look at the screen, it has a large 3D surface, with four little triangles on it. Two are red, one is purple, and one is pink.

"Is Odd the purple triangle?" Aaron asks, he's like reading my mind.

"Yah. Aelita's the pink one. The crabs, like all monsters, are red."

"Odd, twenty life points left." Jeremie says.

"Is that a lot?" I ask.

"No, it's not very much. One more hit and he's down to ten. Then he's gone, he lost the game." Jeremie replies without looking at me.

"Odd careful, there's still one left! Darn it!"

"What happened?"

"Aelita, find some shelter! We need to find another way out of this!" Jeremie turns back to me. "Odd lost all his life points, he's out of the game." Then he does a double take at me and Aaron.

"Aelita, I'm sending Hiroki and Aaron. They're out only hope now." He turns back to us. "Guys, go back into the elevator. Go down one level. Odd will be waiting for you. You're our only hope now, we need you to help us win the game." Aaron and I smile. We run into the elevator and go down one level. Odd is waiting for us in a big golden room. There's three long tubes that go straight into the ceiling.

"Odd, where's the controllers? And the TV? Don't we need those to play the game?" Odd just laughs.

"Nope. Each of you, step into one of the tubes. Relax, no matter what happens. It will all be okay." We do as he says, I step into one and Aaron into the other. We turn around and face Odd.

"Just so you guys know, watch out on the landing!" The doors on the tube close, trapping me inside. I want to pound on the door to let me out, but I remember what Odd said. I trust him. I wait calmly for something to happen. I hear Jeremie's voice over a speaker.

"Transfer Hiroki, transfer Aaron!"

_He's doing to us what he did to Odd and Aelita! This is so cool!_

A large bar goers across the tube, light shining out of it really brightly. I close my eyes to block it out.

"Scanner Hiroki, scanner Aaron!" the light stops, but I feel it get windy. Even windier than when I went to the beach. My hair is flying everywhere, my shirt is flapping against my stomach.

"Virtualization!"

* * *

**Yes, it's kind of a cliffy. But this chapter was getting really long. Before anyone can review me about it, Xana can possess Ulrich because Ulrich is in a weakened state. He's not able to resist as much, and the painkillers he's taking are making him vulnerable. Don't bother me about it. I hope you like this chapter, there's another coming up soon. It will be the entire battle with Hiroki and Aaron on Lyoko. Trust, me it will be different. R&R on your way out!**

**And I leave you with a quote from my ever-growing list: **

**334. Why do we say something is 'out of whack?' What is a whack? (Thanks to Fox Kitsune for that one)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry for not updating in a while, my life has been hectic. I have only a few minutes to update before i'm off the computer, so please enjoy the chapter! (you may be surprised at what I put Hiroki and Aaron as... just be prepared for anything)**

* * *

(Hiroki P.O.V.)

The wind blows really hard, and all of the sudden I can't feel the wind. In fact, I can't feel anything! I open my eyes and see bright colors flashing, so I close them again. I can't feel any part of my body, I can't move my arms or legs. Then, I feel different. I still can't feel my arms or legs, but now I can tell they're there. I open my eyes, and I'm falling! I fall for a couple of feet and hit the ground. Years of jumping out of trees prepares me for this, and I land on my feet. I stumble and fall to the ground. At least, I think it's the ground. It's all smooth and brown. I look around, it looks like I'm in a desert. The desert suddenly stops and there's a cliff. I stand up and look around more. Aaron appeared right beside me, but he looks different. He's wearing jeans and a black muscle shirt. A denim jacket is overtop of that. He has on orange boots, and his hair is purple. It hangs over his face sloppily, like someone I know….

_Trunks! He looks like trunks!_

"Aaron! You look like trunks!" He stands up and looks at himself. He definitely is an uncanny lookalike of future trunks, a character from Dragonball Z. He looks at me and does a double take.

"Dude! You look like Vegeta!" I look at my hands, I'm wearing white gloves. My feet are shod in white boots. I'm wearing a dark blue jumpsuit, skin tight. But most significant is the armor I'm wearing. It's a breastplate that goes around my entire torso. White with yellow abs. Yellow straps go over my shoulders and connect to the back. If I'm like Vegeta in the game, my hair is probably black and going straight up.

"Wow! This is awesome!"

"Hey guys, like your outfits?" Jeremie's voice says.

"Jeremie? Are you here too?"

"No, I'm talking to you like I did to Odd. The computer picked the characters you would be best with. What are you?"

"Characters from the Dragonball Z game." Aaron says.

"Ha, figures." He says. "I don't have time to explain, Aelita is in trouble. You have to go save her. You weapons are-" Aaron just pointed at the ground, and energy blast shot out of his hand and hit the ground, scorching it.

"Energy blasts?"

"Yah. I don't know your powers. You have to figure that out yourself."

"We have powers?"

"Yah. They will help you in battle. You need to hurry, Aelita is being chased. I'm sending a bike and a hoverboard for you two to go on."

"Yes! This gets cooler and cooler!" I yell and jump into the air. I stay there.

"Uh, Jeremie? Scratch the vehicles. I think we can fly." I say as Aaron jumps into the air like me. He stays there, finding out he can fly too.

"Fly? No fair!" We hear Odd yelling in the background. We just laugh.

"Let's go kick Xana's butt!" I yell. Aaron and I fly off in the direction Jeremie tells us. As we fly, a white aura appears around the both of us, but it doesn't impair our vision at all. We see a large red… thing… moving along below us. I dive down to get a better look.

"Hiroki, that's a crab. It has lasers on the front that take away ten life points at a time if they hit you. To destroy it, hit the symbol on the top that looks like an eye. That's it's weak spot." Jeremie says. I dive lower and see the crab is chasing Aelita across the desert floor. At least, it looks like Aelita, she looks like an elf. I take aim, and shoot an energy blast at the crab. It hits the shell, but not the eye. The crab stops and looks up. It fires a laser at me, which I dodge. I take careful aim and fire again. This time it hits the mark and the crab explodes.

"That was cool!" Aaron yells from above.

"Watch out guys, there's a lot more coming!" Jeremie says. I look over and see three more crabs coming at us fast. I dive at the first one and take a shot, this one hits perfectly and it explodes. I land on top of the next one. The other crab fires at me and knocks me off. My arm starts sparking, but I don't feel any pain. I just know I'm hurt. I fly back on top and think for a second. I concentrate harder, and aim away from the symbol. If I'm right, I can do more damage by 'charging up' my energy blast. I fire, it hits the crab away from the symbol. The crab explodes anyway. I jump off just as Aaron destroys the third one. Aelita, or who I think is Aelita, runs away. I look to where she's headed, there's a large cylindrical shaped building with a red aura around it.

"Thanks Hiroki!" She yells at me as she runs past.

"She's leaving?" I say to Aaron, who just shrugs his shoulders at me. I look back to the tower, only to see a new monster step out from behind it. Different than the others, it has one large body, like an insects. Four large single-jointed metallic legs protrude from the center, two in the front and two in the back. The legs are silver, but just past the 'knees,' they get wider in diameter, also changing color to a darker metallic gray.

_Those must be it's guns. Holy crap, it has four guns!_

"Aelita stop! It's a tarantula!" Jeremie yells, Aelita stops quickly and backs away. The tarantula sort of… sits down. It braces one leg against the ground and puts the other two ready to fire. Aelita sits down.

"Aelita! Run away!" I yell. Aaron and I fly toward her fast. She begins to sing. I think she's lost her mind. Just before the tarantula fires, a wall appears. Aelita must have made it. As the lasers pound into the wall, Aaron and I go to fight the new monster. The tarantula turns and fires at us. One laser hits me and knocks me out of the air. Aaron isn't so lucky. He gets hit by at least five, and he disappears.

"What happened to Aaron?"

"He lost all his life points. Nothing to worry about he's back here with us now." The tarantula fires at the wall again, and it shatters. Suddenly, a large creature that looks like a jellyfish comes out from behind a rock. It has a large clear head that is connected to a small purple base. It has a lot of clear tentacles protruding from it. It moves towards Aelita and grabs her. She goes completely stiff and has a pink glow around her.

"Hiroki hurry! That creature is stealing all of Aelita's memories! You have to cut off it's tentacles!" Jeremie yells at me.

"Why not just destroy it?" I ask as I fly over at top speed.

"Because it has too many life points. It would take a huge hit to destroy it." I stop because I had an idea. An idea that I liked. I drop to the ground and extend one hand, palm open and fingers straight. I charge up my energy blast.

"Hiroki, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to destroy it."

"No! You can't! Just hurry up and free Aelita!"

"Hold on Jeremie, just trust me on this." I say. I think my blast is big enough now. My hand is glowing yellow with all the energy. Just for fun, I yell out the name of Vegeta's best move.

"Big Bang Attack!" I yell and release the energy. A huge ball of red crackling energy flies over and hits the creature. It hits squarely and the creature explodes. Aelita falls to the ground.

"Hiroki! You did it!" Aelita says as soon as she gets up.

"Hiroki, you have one last thing to take care of: the tarantula. And you have to do it quickly or Yumi could die." Jeremie says.

"What?"

"Xana took control of Ulrich and used him to attack Yumi. He's hurting her right now. As soon as Aelita turns off the tower, Ulrich will stop."

_Yumi!_

I get mad at Xana for trying to hurt Yumi. I glare at the tarantula which is coming at me fast.

"You mess with Yumi, you mess with me!" I yell. Suddenly, my aura changes color, it turns a golden color. I feel really mad. I look over at Aelita, who is staring at me.

"Hiroki, you're different!" Aelita says to me. "You hair has turned yellow!" I don't respond, I just keep looking at the tarantula. I still know exactly what this is, I've transformed into a super saiyan. When some characters from the game get mad, they go super saiyan, giving them enhanced powers. Super strength, speed, and agility make them a practically indestructible warrior.

"Aelita, find some cover. This is going to be messy." I say calmly. Aelita nods and runs behind the large boulder that the jellyfish creature came out from. I begin to run at the approaching tarantula. Slowly at first, then faster and faster. I'm running faster than I have ever before. When I reach top speed, I jump into the air and fly.

I fly fast towards the oncoming tarantula, my aura is glowing golden now. I fly at a super fast speed, right past the tarantula. I drop to the ground behind it, staring calmly at it. It turns around and prepares to fire, I still just stare at it. It seems to be moving extremely slowly. It fires multiple rounds, but they seem to be going in slow motion. I dodge each one. I run forward, forgetting about my energy blasts, and punch the tarantula right in the head. I feel the metallic skull crack and buckle underneath my punch, but it does not break. Instead the tarantula goes flying forty feet away, landing and skidding until it's about fifty feet away from me. Without waiting, I begin charging my energy blast.

"Hey Xana. Here's a tip…." I say, still charging. The tarantula looks at me inquisitively, and prepares to fire more lasers.

"Stay away from my sister!" I yell. The tarantula begins to fire many lasers, I release all the pent up energy inside me. The massive blast flies quickly towards the tarantula, incinerating all the tarantula's lasers. It hits the tarantula full-on, destroying it instantly, also destroying a lot of the land around it. There's literally a crater were the tarantula used to be. I fly at supersonic speeds to Aelita and drop down beside her.

"Aelita, now's your chance." I say. I pick her up and fly her to the tower. "Save my sister." She nods and runs into the tower. All of the sudden, I'm exhausted. I drop out of super saiyan, my aura turning back to white. I drop to the ground, laying there.

"Jeremie? What happens now?"

"We fix everything, it all goes back to normal. And unfortunately, you won't remember a thing." He says.

"Why not?"

"Just because. That's what happens."

"Oh well, maybe that's a good thing. I don't really want to have to save the world all the time. I don't know how you guys do it." I say.

"Thanks Hiroki, for everything." Jeremie says.

"Anytime." I say. I look back at the tower that Aelita entered. A large white light bursts from it, and immediately hits me. Then everything goes white.

* * *

**Explanation for Dragonball Z stuff: I was feeling lazy. My brother was watching a dragonball Z movie, I had already established that they knew about the game... so I just went with it. I thought the super saiyan thing was pretty cool though. read and review, tell me what you thought!**


	8. Chapter 8

**I apologize for the long wait. Even though this has been one of my more popular stories, I just don't seem to put much effort into it. I'm going to change that. Anyway, here's another chapter of Road to Recovery.**

* * *

(Yumi P.O.V.)

Odd, Jeremie, Aelita take off running with the little kids in tow, leaving me to deal with Ulrich. I look down to where he's laying, he's flickering slightly. He then gets quickly to his feet, looking at me again.

"Well hello Yumi," he says in his horrible voice, "wouldn't you like to give me a kiss?" He says and laughs horridly. The creepiest part is that the whole time, he said it in Ulrich's voice, although it sounded like he had a really bad cold.

"Ulrich, how could he do this to you? I thought Xana couldn't possess us!" I cry out, I can feel my emotions trying to break through my mental barrier. Seeing Ulrich like this breaks my heart.

"Fool, do you really think that Ulrich could resist me in his weakened state? You're even more foolish than-" Ulrich suddenly stops and starts twitching violently. His eyes turn back to brown for a second. "Yumi… help…." He says with great effort. The tears start flowing down my face freely.

"Fight it Ulrich, fight it!" I yell at him, but it's no use. He stands up straight again, Xana's symbol back in his eyes.

"It seems I gave Ulrich less credit than he deserved. He is indeed putting up a good fight." He glares at me, but something isn't right. There's a smirk behind that glare.

"I'll kill you Xana."

"Not without killing Ulrich." He says smiling fully this time. I quickly aim to kick his head, but he just grabs my foot.

"Too slow Yumi." Going with a classic, I bring my other foot up to meet his head, forcing him to release me. He goes flying.

"Hmm Xana. It seems that by possessing a weakened person, you become weakened yourself." I say smiling. He just gets back up and looks at me.

"Indeed it is so." He says before launching himself at me. I quickly sidestep and twist my elbow around to hit him in the back of the head. He ducks and rolls, sweeping his foot out to take me down. I fall, landing on my hands, but I use my momentum to kick him as he is getting up, sending him sprawling. He rolls over, but as soon as his back touches the floor he starts convulsing in pain.

"Ulrich!" I say and run over. I push him over, so his back isn't touching the floor anymore, and he stops. Without any warning, he backhands me, sending me flying across the room. I skid to a halt and groan.

_Why does Xana always have to be so tough?_

I stand up wobbly, but I'm still standing.

"I must find a new host body. This one is becoming a hassle." He says, standing and facing me. Immediately, a black ghost flies out of Ulrich's mouth and straight into mine. I begin choking, but it soon gets worse. It feels like my entire head it being pulled apart at the seams. Like someone is slowly jamming a large splinter into my brain. I open my eyes long enough to see Ulrich having spasms on the floor. That drives me over the edge. I mentally grab a hold of the splinter and pull it out of my head. The black ghost flies back out of me and into Ulrich. I stand up, still feeling pain and achy all over. Ulrich stands up and glares at me.

"One day, I will possess you Yumi. And I will kill every single one of your friends, slowly drinking their blood."

"Xana, that is disgusting." I say, and our battle resumes.

After one move, Ulrich rushes me, but I sidestep, pushing him on the back. He goes down hard, convulsing again. After a moment, he gets up and quickly punches me in the face. I literally go flying across the room, hitting the wall and collapsing. I can taste blood in my mouth, I spit it out with disgust. Standing back up, I nearly fall back down. My head is spinning like there's no tomorrow. As soon as I can see straight again, I notice that Ulrich is no longer glaring at me. In fact… his eyes have turned back to brown.

"Ulrich…?" He looks straight back at me, almost like he's debating what to do. Then, he smiles.

"Yumi… I did it. I got free of Xana." He says slowly. I run over to him, tears forming in my eyes again. I hug him and he hugs me back.

"I knew you could do it." I say through my tears. Suddenly, Ulrich's hands leave my back and he starts laughing. Not the good natured laugh like I'm used to… but more evil. Like Xana's… XANA!

Without any more warning, I feel a fist bury itself in my gut. I go down clutching my stomach. Coughing like mad, I look down to see a dark red pool of liquid and the taste of blood again in my mouth. Another fist comes crashing down on top of my skull, forcing my face into the carpet. My whole body is in pain, I can feel it from the tips of my fingers to the ends of my toes. I can feel the tears running down my cheeks, but I'm helpless to stop them.

"U-Ulrich, help me…." I say, even though I know Ulrich cannot do a thing about it. I roll over and crack my eyes open to see Ulrich's fists glowing purple. He reaches down and touches my arm, and suddenly I feel another burst of pain. But then it stops. My whole body goes completely numb, and I can't feel a thing. I watch as Ulrich pulls his hands away and moves them to his head, fighting himself terribly. His eyes are flashing back and forth from brown to black so fast I can't tell which is which.

"U-Ulrich… help me…." I manage to mumble. Upon hearing my feeble words, he looses all control and crashes to the ground next to me, twitching violently. Suddenly and without warning, all the pain comes crashing back. My mind goes blank and everything goes white as my eyes roll into the back of my head and I pass out.

* * *

(Ulrich P.O.V.) 

I get suddenly jolted awake, but I can't move. I look around to find myself chained to a wall, about five feet off the floor. I realize that this isn't Earth, because my back isn't throbbing in pain. But it isn't Lyoko either, because I can feel pain coming from my arms because I'm hanging from the chains. Suddenly, a pure black humanoid appears in front of me on the floor. It has no distinctive markings whatsoever, except for blood red slits for eyes. I struggle against the chains that bind me, but they hold me tight.

"Don't bother Ulrich. You're not really in reality right now anyway. This is basically just a vision, one you cannot escape from until I release you." It says. A symbol slowly starts appearing on it's forehead, blood red like the eyes. It slowly circles outward from the center, until it has formed Xana's eye.

"Xana," I spit out with contempt, "What is this place?"

"Like I said, this isn't really reality. I have possessed your body, and you are imprisoned inside your own mind."

"Let me go."

"I have always wondered why humans say that. What chance do you think that by telling me to, I will let you go?" I remain silent.

"Anyway, I have control of your body now. For most people I possess, they are still unconscious on that wall, but I have decided to give you a special treat. I will have you watch as I slowly kill your precious Yumi."  
"Damn you Xana."

"Why thank you." He says. I'm sure if he could, he would be smirking. A large, rectangular… space… opens up in front of me. It's like a viewing screen.

I see the carpet inside Yumi's house right now, but it rises until I can see Yumi. I can see everything from my own point of view.

I watch as the battle begins. I can hear every word Yumi says, every expression of pain she emits as my… no Xana's hands hurt her.

I notice that when Xana responds using my body, the humanoid figure below talks at the same time.

_That is the Xana that is controlling my body. If I could somehow kill that creature, I could get my body back._

I watch the whole horrific battle, and I scream obscenities at Xana when he hurts Yumi. I scream in agony as I watch Yumi fall for the trick Xana pulled. I feel Yumi's pain when my fist strikes her in the gut, and then on the top of her head.

But what drove me overboard is when Xana used my own hands to electrocute her. I yell at Xana, scream at him with all my might.

I struggle as much as I can against the chains that bind me. I use every ounce of strength that I have built up over years of training to try and break them.

"U-Ulrich… help me…" I hear Yumi's voice ring out. That drove me over the edge.

The chains shattered from my wrists, and I fell the five feet to the floor. Landing on the balls of my feet, I instantly turn to the creature, whose eyes are wide open in shock. I cock my fist back and slug it across the face.

It goes literally flying and hits the wall. It gets absorbed by the wall, and everything disappears.

Pain erupts through my body as I regain control of it. Everything is engulfed in pain. My back, my chest, my head, my arms, my legs, everything. I turn my head to look at Yumi. She's unconscious, a pool of blood below her open mouth, her teeth stained red because of it. Her cheeks are stained with tears and blood.

I have no more strength left to fight. I slowly fall into the darkness that envelops me.

* * *

**R&R, I will have another chapter up soon, I promise.**


	9. Chapter 9

**I apologize profusely for taking so long to update. I had completely forgot about this story. I've had this chapter done for... I don't know how long. It's just been sitting on my computer, waiting to be posted. I promise, the next chapter will be up soon to make up for it.**

**Anyways, this chapter just sets up for the next chapter anyway, so it's short. My apologies for that too.**

* * *

(Ulrich P.O.V.)

"Odd, you touch him and you'll lose the ability to have children." Yumi says quietly and Odd visibly winces.

I'm lying on the couch, and Yumi has her head on my chest. Odd is standing up and looking around confused. Jeremie and Aelita both sit up, as do Yumi and I.

Immediately, I get tackled by Yumi in a giant bear hug. Pain goes lancing up my back from Yumi's arms, but I ignore it. I hug Yumi back with all the passion I have. After a minute, I think she remembers my back, and she lets go quickly with a mumbled apology.

"So, anyone want to explain what happened?" I ask. Odd just shrugs, and so does Aelita.

"I figured that you and Yumi fighting each other would end up with at least one of you getting hurt, so I reversed time." Jeremie says. Yumi and I look at each other knowingly.

"You don't know how right you are Jeremie." Yumi says.

"Care to explain in detail the fight?" Odd asks, sitting down on the couch.

"Yes." Yumi and I say at the same time.

"Oh come on. Just a brief overview. Ulrich vs. Yumi has to be the fight of the century." He says. I shrug my shoulders and explain as briefly as I can the fight.

"Xana, that was a dirty trick." Aelita says to herself.

"It was. Now let's go to sleep, I'm exhausted." I say, lying back down on the couch. Yumi lies down carefully next to me, and Odd resumes his previous position.

As we all settle in for the night, I can't sleep. Out of impulse, I gently stroke Yumi's hair. She looks up at me.

"What's on your mind?" She whispers.

"Nothing." I whisper back, closing my eyes.

"Liar. Tell me what's wrong." I open my eyes and look into hers. They're so full of love… compassion… and caring that I can't help but want to tell her everything.

"It's nothing… I just never… ever… want to fight you again. Ever." I whisper, mostly to myself.

"You won't have to." She replies, closing her eyes and going back to her previous position. I resume stroking her hair, and gently kiss the top of her head.

"Sweet dreams."

"Sweet dreams Ulrich."

"Hey! What about me?" Odd asks in a loud whisper.

"Sweet dreams Odd." We say at the same time.

"That's better." And Odd closes his eyes again. Holding my sweet Yumi in my arms, I go to sleep.

* * *

(Yumi P.O.V.) 

I slowly open my eyes and glance at my alarm clock. The numbers are glowing 9:02

I have to get up soon anyway… 

I rise to a sitting position and stretch. I stumble into the bathroom to take a shower. As the cool water runs down my hair and face, I feel as though something is wrong.

It's been a week since Xana's last attack. He took advantage of Ulrich's weakened state and possessed him. He and I got into a bloody fight, I only survived because Ulrich regained control of his body in the nick of time. Jeremie deactivated the tower and sent us into the past.

Why hasn't Xana attacked since then?

I get out of the shower and change. I go downstairs to find my parents and Hiroki are both gone. There's a note sitting on the counter.

**Yumi,**

**Went shopping, took Hiroki with us.**

**Love, Mom Dad and Hiroki**

**P.S. I bought some vitamin pills I would like you to start taking.**

**You look too pale.**

**Mom**

I crumple up the note and toss it into the garbage.

Mom has never bought any pills on a whim like this before… 

I see the bottle on the windowsill and I grab it. I read the label, it looks legit. So I pop one into my mouth and drink some water. They don't taste very good.

I sit down with a bowl of cereal in front of the TV. Not much is on, so I just flip through the channels.

As soon as I finish, my cell phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out to see a text message from Ulrich.

**Xana atk, meet us factory **

**-U**

I dump my bowl in the sink and run off, locking the door. I head for the park, which is the fastest way to get to the factory.

As soon as I enter the park, I feel a little strange. I feel disoriented and weak. I shake it off, thinking it's probably a side effect of going from sleeping to running so fast.

I can almost see the manhole, and I hear Ulrich's voice.

"Yah, I sent her a message…" He says. Jeremie responds, but I can't hear him. My blood is pounding in my ears, making them hurt. I slow down to a walk, but I still feel weak. I stumble around a bush, just in time to see Ulrich before I hit the ground.

All my strength has fled from me, I just stare blankly as Ulrich runs over to me.

"Yumi! Yumi… Yumi…" He says, his voice echoing. It's the last thing I hear before everything goes black.

* * *

**I told you it was short. Anyways, review and I'll have the next chapter up soon. I mean it this time.**


	10. Chapter 10

**I planned to update this probably... three days ago, but document manager wouldn't let me upload anything. So today, when it FINALLY let me, I uploaded as quick as possible. So here it is, the next chapter of Road to Recovery. I hope you like it.**

* * *

(Ulrich P.O.V) 

Yumi hits the ground just before I reach her. I prop her up to look at me more fully.

"Yumi! Can you hear me?" There's no response, her eyes are rolling around wildly in their sockets, but they soon close.

"Jeremie! This must be the attack!" Aelita says loudly.

"We have to get to the factory." Odd adds.

"Let's go Ulrich." Jeremie says, but I still hold onto Yumi tightly, refusing to let go.

"Ulrich, we have to go. Leave Yumi here, she's only going to slow us down." Odd says, resting his hand on my shoulder.

"No Odd! I'm not leaving her!" I pick her up and hold her bridal style. Suddenly, I'm surrounded by black Xana ghost. I prepare myself for it to enter my body, but it passes me by, going straight to Yumi.

As soon as it enters her mouth, I feel the jolt of massive amounts of electricity flowing through my body. Because of it, I drop Yumi and she goes tumbling to the ground. She immediately gets up, Xana's symbol blazing in her eyes.

"I finally did it. Yumi is mine." She says.

"Not if I have anything to say about it. Jeremie, Aelita, Odd, run for the factory." I see Jeremie and Aelita drop through the manhole, but Odd hesitates.

"Go Odd."

"Be careful Ulrich." He says before dropping through as well. I kick the cover back in place and turn to face Yumi.

I quickly drop to the ground before her foot collides with my head. She spins a full 360 degrees around before placing that same foot where my head was a split second before. Anticipating the move, I had rolled as soon as she spun.

I quickly spring back up to my feet, only to have a fist collide with my chest, sending me flying backwards. Luckily, I manage to stay on my feet.

"Good Ulrich. You are more skilled then Yumi was." I rub my already aching chest.

"Yah well, I'm also quite a bit more seasoned in fighting." I say, really not in the mood for sarcasm right now.

"Well let's see how well you can fight against this." She says with a smirk. She holds up a hand and it glows purple. A lightning bolt flies from it and hits me directly in the chest. I feel pain surging through every pore of my body as I get lifted into the air. I feel it surging, pulsing throughout my body for a long while until I finally get dropped to the ground. My whole body aches, it feels as though I've been turned inside out. I slowly stagger back to my feet, the pain in my back is enormous.

"No… fair."

"What do you mean, no fair? I used my abilities, and you use yours."

"What abilities do I have? You're practically impenetrable, and shoot lightning out of your hands! Now what do I have that can make up for that? Talk about unfair." Yumi just laughs at me. She holds up her hand, and it glows a bright orange red. A large fiery red blast shoots out of her hand and hits me on the shoulder. My shirt bursts into flames, scorching my shoulder.

I quickly strip off my over-shirt but there's fire on my undershirt as well. I rip that off and toss it onto the ground, leaving my torso bare to the elements. I grudgingly stamp out the flames with my foot.

I look back over at Yumi and scowl.

"That was my favorite shirt." I say. My shoulder has a pretty serious burn on it, and my cheek feels tender as well. But other than that, I don't think it did too much damage.

Considering it's the middle of winter, it's pretty cold outside. Without anything covering my torso, I feel the cold begin to creep in. I rub my arms in a futile attempt to warm them.

"Are you cold Ulrich? We can't have that…" Yumi says mockingly. She smiles at me and puts her other hand forward, both glowing red and orange. She moves her hands outward, like a baseball umpire pronouncing a batter safe, and a line of fire explodes from her hands. Horizontal and at least fifteen feet across, there's no side stepping it. As I realize this, I also realize there's no more time to duck forward.

Taking my last option, I snap backward at the knees, sending my torso backwards until it's parallel to the ground. The line of fire flies over my head, scorching my hair but leaving me mostly undamaged.

I fall to the ground after being in such a precarious position. I jerk my feet up just in time to avoid another blast, and I jump to my feet. My back is aching after being on the ground. Yumi fires blast after blast, and I have to roll and dodge and jump all over the place to avoid them. By the end, I'm bleeding and scorched in numerous places. My back has opened up again, scabs have pulled open and are bleeding freely.

"This is just like killing ants with a magnifying glass." Yumi says chuckling. She suddenly becomes serious. "It gets boring after a while."

"I don't have anything to worry about. My friends will deactivate your tower soon."

"Oh, I don't think so. I haven't worried about devirtualizing them, I don't really care. I just have them trapped so they can't get to the tower. Even your friend Odd hasn't lost a single life point yet." She lowers her hands and they stop glowing.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to make this more interesting. You and I are going to fight hand to hand. I won't use any of my abilities, so it will be a fair fight."

"Yah right. I'm already burned on half my body and can barely move…" I murmur, but she seems to hear me.

"Oh, so you don't think it's fair yet?" She asks curiously.

"Unless I get Jeremiefied, it will never be." I say.

"Well we can't have that." She says. She raises her hands, and they glow a sky blue color. I brace myself for the finale, I can't fend her off anymore. I can't move the left side of my body, it's too badly burned. I can barely move my left leg, but other than that, I'm immobile.

The blue light hits me, but I don't feel any pain. For a second, I thought maybe I was numb, but no. I feel good. I feel really good. When the light recedes back into Yumi's outstretched hands, I realize I'm no longer in any pain.

I move my left arm, it's completely healed. So is every burn so far. My ribs no longer hurt from the fall. In fact…

I reach back and rub a hand over my bare back. It's completely smooth, no scars or wounds whatsoever.

"Why did you heal me?"

"To make it more fair. Now let's fight." Yumi says with a sneer. She walks up to me slowly and thrust a lazy fist toward my face. I just move my head so it whiffs by my head.

"You're wasting your time Xana. Have you noticed I haven't stuck back yet?"

"Why not?"

"I promised Yumi I would never hurt her again. And I intend to keep that promise." I say smiling. Fury contorts Yumi's face, something I have never seen before. She hits me hard in the ribs, and I go flying back. I know that single punch broke at least two… no three ribs.

I stand back up clutching my side. Yumi quickly punches me in the face and I go down again. I taste blood in my mouth and spit it out. I stand back up again to see Yumi looking furious.

"Fight me!" She yells in my face.

"No."

"Then you will die!" She screams. She raises a fist and aims it for my face. About a foot away, it stops. She looks at me, her whole countenance has changed. From fury to desperation.

"Ulrich, h-help me. I can't stop myself!" She whispers frantically.

_The real Yumi has broken through!_

"Yumi fight it! I did, you can too!" I say loudly. Her face twists into concentration.

"I'm sorry Ulrich!" I squeeze my hand inside her clenched fist, holding her hand tightly in my own.

"You can do it Yumi, you can!" She loses control, I can tell. Her fist clenches again, squeezing mine tightly. She uses the same fist to punch me across the face.

I fall back, but because she's holding my hand, I don't fall down. I pull myself up, despite my throbbing face.

"Ulrich… I'm sorry… I can't stop myself… he drugged me this morning…" She manages to say.

"You can do it Yumi… I did…" I swiftly lean up and kiss her. Before I break apart, I feel a knee in my gut. I let go of her hand and break away, clutching my stomach. I pair of hands clasped together come down on top of my head, smashing my head down and giving me a face full of dirt.

After a moment where nothing happens, I look up. Yumi is standing above me, just looking at me.

Suddenly, she lets out a scream of fury clenching her fists by her side so hard I can see blood trickling out from them. The black Xana ghost rockets out of her mouth, flying high into the air and disappearing.

She falls to her knees, her arms falling limply by her side.

"Thank you Ulrich…" She whispers before falling forward. I spring forward just in time to catch her before she hits the ground.

I maneuver myself so her head is resting in my lap. I gently stroke her hair, as she's unconscious. I pull out my phone and hit speed dial three.

"Ulrich, what's happening?" Jeremie's voice yells from the phone.

"It's okay Jeremie. No one's possessed anymore, Yumi freed herself."

"Do we need a return to the past?"

"Considering I have probably three broken ribs, probably yes. But I really don't want to."

"Why not?"

"Xana actually healed me so he could have a better opponent."

"So why do we need a return trip?" Jeremie asks after a moment.

"Because Xana broke three of my ribs, probably knocked loose a couple teeth, and odds are I'll have a concussion because of this. Plus it's pretty hard to breath right now." Jeremie sighs.

"Okay. Is Yumi alright?"

"She's unconscious right now from the strain, but I think she'll be okay. Actually wait, could you just go… about ten minutes into the past?"

"Of course. Aelita just deactivated the tower. Return to the past… now." Jeremie says, and the line goes dead. I see the white bubble coming at me at an incredibly fast pace. It hits me and sends me into oblivion.

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**Another chapter of Road to Recovery: Finished. Anyways, review and tell me what you thought! Please?**


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